Lowe High School - Towers Yearbook (Windsor, Ontario Canada)

Page 69 text:

Page Sixty-Six THE TOWERS LITECACy Honeymoon — No Wile -By GEORGE NUTT I awoke one morning to find my doorbell ringing very loudly. Being very much perturbed by the noise, I wrapped my robe about me and hustled off to the door. To my great delight there was my good friend Jonathan Harding. We had gone to school together and had always chummed around in our younger days. I had not seen him for eight years. “Jon”, I said, “what are you doing here, 1 thought you were in California”. “I just came from there, George”, Jon re¬ plied, I’m going to get married tomorrow to a New York girl. I came in on the plane this morning and I thought I’d drop by and see you”. “Well, it really is nice to see you, Jon, come in and have a cup of coffee”. I offered him a cigarette and we both had a quick cup of coffee. We sat down and dis¬ cussed each other’s life for the past years. This girl he was going to marry, used to go to school with him in college. Jon continued with ex¬ periences out in California and how he finally came up to be advertising manager of some big firm. 1 didn’t catch the name for my mind was th ' nking of breakfast. “Well”, Jon said, “how have you been making out? From the looks of this apartment, I would say fine”. “Not bad”, I answered, “the ‘newspaper’ is paying fairly well now. Two hundred dollars a week is nothing to sneeze at”. “I guess not”, he replied. “Well, I guess I’ll be going”, he continued, “1 have to meet Irene at some beauty salon on Park Avenue”. ‘Irene’, 1 guessed, was his fiance. We rose, and I thanked him for calling , and said I’d be seeing him shortly. As he left he said I’d receive an invitation to his wedding. 1 said that 1 would be delighted. After he had gone, I dressed and went downstairs for my breakfast. Jon was married a few days following, and to a very lovely girl if I do say so. The two were off on their honeymoon the next day. “Well”, I said to myself, “there goes an¬ other bachelor out of our world”. I didn’t give the matter of Jon’s marriage another thought until I received a telegram, but I wondered why in the world he needed me in Niagara Falls. As I stepped from the plane in Niagara Falls, 1 was greeted by Jon. “Jon, why in heaven’s name do you need me?” 1 asked. “Never mind now, I’ll tell you everything as we drive to the hotel”, he replied. We got into a car and Jon started to ex¬ plain why he called me down here. “Irene has disappeared”, Jon remarked, quite calmly. “Last night about six, 1 left the hotel room and went downstairs for a New York paper. Irene seemed gloomy and depres¬ sed and seemed worried about something. I stayed downstairs for about half an hour and, when I returned, Irene was gone. She left no letter or note to explain her disappearance”. “It is quite peculiar”, I replied, “but maybe she got homesick and went back to her mother”. “Irene couldn’t have done that, because I’ve phoned her mother and all her friends, and they haven’t seen her”. “Did you two have an argument or any misunderstanding that would explain this?” “No! Nothing whatever. Wait a minute, she did receive a phone call about ten minutes before I left; but that didn’t seem to bother her”, replied Jon. “Well, it might have had something to do with it, but maybe she went out for a few min¬ utes and she might have met with an accident. Have you checked the hospitals ?” I asked. “Yes, it seems I’ve covered everything there is to cover”. “Did she take any clothes with her?” I questioned. He said that she only took her hat and coat and that he thought the whole business was crazy. “Obviously then”, 1 said, “Irene thought she was going out for a few minutes, probably to some store for some article”. “Yes, that seems probable, doesn’t it”, he replied. “Jon, I’ll leave you now to get something to eat for yourself, while I check up on a few things. “Fine”, Jon answered, “I haven’t had any¬ thing to eat since yesterday”. I left Jon and went downstairs. On my way down I described Irene to the elevator boy and asked him if he had seen her. The elevator boy said she had checked into the hotel with her husband a few days ago. He had taken her up to and from her room a number of times, and the last time he had seen her was last night at six fifteen. Well, I thought I was doing fine, at least I discovered the time at which she left her room. I thanked the boy for his informa¬ tion and handed him a dollar for his services. In the hotel lobby now, I went over to the switch-board operator and asked her if she

Page 68 text:

T H E T O W E R S Page Sixty-Five LITECAPy t Can’t Happen Here or Can It ? -By LORRAINE CLEN DENNING, T2-A X | HESE WORDS were spoken many times during the war years. When Nazi bombs were being dropped on many countries of Europe, and German armies were marching on soil of many lands. No, it didn’t happen here, but only because of the determination of our peoples in peace loving nations, working side by side turning out the materials to quell the enemy. But it can happen, now that science has discovered more deadly weapons than could ever have been dreamed by man. The one great threat to the countries now is not Nazism, but Communism. This threat i real—not just a boogy as so many people would have you believe. This has been proven by I. A. Sullivan’s exposure of Communist Activities here in Canada, the United States, and England. It is time for the world at large to waken up to this fact and stamp it out, we cannot say in its infancy, as they are many in number irf our unions and in our government, wherever they can get a foothold. We, the youth of this country which we love so dearly, must realize that we are the men and women of tomorrow and must not sit idly by without making some effort to help stop this new threat to the peace of this world. We are too young to take an active part in our government, but we are not too young to speak our minds, which thank God we are able to do in all the democratic countries, and which we will not be able to do if ruled by a Communistic Government. Every youth can do his or her part in the home as well as outside by seeing that his parents vote at elections for union members or any organization where votes are required. The Communist members are always out in force. Go t o church and take your parents with you. We are free to worship as we please and this we could not do if under Communist Rule. Keep your ears open at school meetings, church groups, parties, or wherever youth congregates, and speak your mind if one in your midst is speaking against our democratic way of life. One voice raised would be as a crying in the wilderness, but if we youths band together to keep our way of life, to worship as we please, freedom of speech and the many other things we now enjoy, may yet save our country from those who wish to take everything from us. d -By CORA ATHERTON, Cl-A Surprise The girl entered her aunt’s house just as the cuckoo-clock struck a quarter to six in the evening. There was no answer to her cheery “hello”. Not a sound in the house but the echoes of her own voice! Upstairs, in a small sitting-room at the back of the house, there was a couch and a shelf of good books. She made her way toward this cosy room to await her aunt’s home-coming. At the top of the stairs she heard a woman screaming and calling for help; the girl stood still, frightened to death. She then heard a man saying that since the woman knew too much, he would have to kill her. She could hear the blows as the man struck her, with the screaming vibrating in the air. Suddenly the announcer said the story would be continued the next week. The young girl was relieved, suddenly rea¬ lizing that the radio had been left on.

Page 70 text:

T HE TO W ERS Pago Sixty-Seven could remember a telephone call about five- fifty in the afternoon to room 317, which was Jon ' s room. I didn’t have much hope that she would remember, but I had to check everything. To my great surprise the girl answered, “Yes, I do, I remember that call particularly. A man caine up to me—he was quite good looking—and as(:ed me what room was Jonathan Harding’s. I told him the number and then he went over to the pay phone and rang the hotel number and asked to speak to room 317. I thought it was peculiar because he could have gone up to the room in less time than it took him to phone”. I then asked her for a description of the man. She couldn’t give me a very good des¬ cription but it was fair, since she only had a quick look at him. I thanked her and was on my way across the lobby to see the bell boys. They were standing over in a corner in a group. I was very happy, and the way things were happening, I thonght we would have this problem solved shortly. Apparently, Irene re¬ ceived a phone call from a man, and she probab¬ ly came down and met him, and either they went off together or the man forced her to do so. It was only my guess, but 1 had to check with the bell boys. The first two remembered seeing her around the hotel but they never bother with women much because they don’t tip heavily, so they said. The third bell boy remembered her, by my description, and said she was talking in a very high voice to a man he had never seen before. That was all he could tell me. The fourth boy told me he remembered the two ar¬ guing as they went out the door and got into a cab. “Was it a cab that services this hotel?” 1 asked. Yes”, he replied, “as there are only four, it would not be hard to find if you’re looking for it”. By luck, the cab which took Irene and her (riend to their destination, was outside. My questioning of the cabby didn’t get me very far, for he wouldn’t talk. After I gave him a five dollar bill he told everything. He remembered the two by their arguing with each other. He took them to a hotel about a mile away, the Palm Arms. I asked him to drive me there and on the way he told me of their argument. He said he only caught a few phrases but they were ar¬ guing about money. The cabby said the man wanted money from the girl. She refused, and he said that he would tell the girl’s husband about a little incident unfavourable to the girl. That was all the cabby knew, but that was enough. We were at the hotel by the time he had finished his story. 1 thanked him again and 1 got out of the cab and went into the hotel. Now, 1 was stuck. As I didn t have a very good description of the man, how was I to be sure who was the right man whom I wanted to see. I went up to the desk-clerk and flashed a phony badge, which I had won at a track meet in my younger days, and told him I was a detective. I told the clerk I wanted to know if a certain man lived here. 1 gave him a brief description. He said that there was a man here by the name of Mr. Barkley in room 728. I thanked him. 1 arrived at the room in a few minutes, but on the way 1 asked the elevator boy if he had ever seen Mr. Barkley with a certain young lady, Irene to be exact. He said he had, but only once; this was the day before—about six- thirty, when they entered the hotel together and when she left alone at about six-fifty-five. Well, I thought, as 1 was about to knock at the door, Mr. Barkley seems to have had something to do with Irene’s disappearance. Barkley opened the door, and the des¬ cription of him was very fitting. I asked if 1 could come in to see him for a few minutes. 1 said I was an inquiring reporter. Once 1 got into the apartment I sat down and made myself at home. Barkley sat down across from me as 1 started my barrage of questions. “What do you know about a young lady called Irene Young?” I asked him. He looked at me in astonishment, and didn’t say anything. “Alright”, I said, “let’s tell everything we know about her. I know you met her last night at six-fifteen, and brought her here to your apartment, and that you were probably black¬ mailing her. I’ll tell you something else, too, Mrs. Harding is missing, and if anything hap¬ pened to her you are in a pretty bad spot to be accused as her abductor”. “1 admit that I met her and brought her up here”, he replied, “but all I wanted was money to keep me quiet about her past. You see, two years ago she had an affair with a married man. The newspapers never got news of the affair”. But”, he continued, “she left here about half an hour later”. “That’s right”, I replied, “but did she tell you where she was going ?” “No! I asked her for money but she re¬ fused to give me any. She said she wanted that past affair closed for she was happy now and wanted to forget about it. She left in a hurry and said she had to go to the garage to get the car which she had been getting repaired. This was something new to me. Jon hadn ' t mentioned about the car being repaired. But I guess it wasn’t necessary if he got the car him¬ self. But if Irene brought the car home, this had a different light on the subject. I put this thought out of my mind as an impossibility. I excussed myself for rushing in this way and thanked him for his help. 1 told him not to leave town, for he was still very much invol¬ ved in this mystery. He said he had nothing to hide about himself. This was fine. I returned to Jon’s room to await for his arrival. I had a few things to ask him about Irene. As Jon was not there, 1 thought it would be best if I waited for him. While sitting there, the telephone rang. The man introduced himself as a Mr. Wilson and said that he wished to speak to Mr. J. Harding. I told him that Jon